Movies – 227

Le Week-End

Remember Jeff Goldblum from the The Big Chill? He starred as a horny smartarse and here he is again reprising that role as that same generation face up to the fact that they’re now (sigh) 60…

Nick (Jim Broadbent) and Meg (Lindsay Duncan) are on a weekend away in Paris when they meet up with an old friend (Goldblum), and if director Roger Michell and writer Hanif Kureishi’s (both once hip young things themselves) are right, life for the boomers is grim! In fact it would be hard to find a film that could beat this one in industrial strength sourness. They were all uni radicals once – but Meg’s now a weary schoolteacher, Nick’s a lecturer facing forced retirement for “inappropriate comments” and their freeloading son is a pothead.

As they snipe and reminisce, the full horrors of the missed opportunities and squandered lives of their generation are revealed. It is clever and, yes, a bit bitter but very funny. It is just as well we’re laughing so much!

CTC from Feb 20.

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Gloria

A film about mature people rated for “Strong sex scenes”? OK, so you’ve been warned! But Sebastian Lelio’s drama is NOT an appalling Hollywood cringe-fest (yes, your ‘comedies’ Meryl Streep).

There’s nothing remotely embarrassing about Gloria (Pauline Garcia), a 50ish divorcee with a less than perfect figure and healthy carnal appetite. She frequents singles nights where well-heeled Chileans go to groove to retro disco, and one night she meets Rodolfo (Sergio Hernandez), an elegant and unusual man. Gloria includes him in her family’s life, and it is in these telling, acutely observed scenes that Lelio’s delicate and intimate melodrama soars. For Rodolfo is not all he seems, and in the last half of the film, her carefully constructed world unravels.

Garcia is just fabulous and one of her best scenes is not in the sack revealing all, but with her stoner neighbour’s whiny hairless cat. Is she destined to be a lonely cat lady? Wait till the last scene – it’s as glorious as it is perfect!

MA15+ from Feb 27

★ Thanks to Rialto Distribution we have 10 double in-season passes to give away.
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All Is Lost

In J.C. Chandor’s (Margin Call) suspenseful minimalist thriller, a lone sailer is cast adrift after his yacht is hit by a stray container.

What happens next is just incredible. He slowly and methodically goes about the seemingly hopeless task of trying to stay alive, but does he? Hey, I’m not telling – all I’ll say is that the film is an astonishingly unique experience, all thanks to the skills of this talented new director and his solitary veteran actor (Robert Redford).

Apart from a short narration at the start there’s only ONE word of dialogue in its entire, thrilling 106 minutes – a well deserved expletive, screamed into a vast, merciless expanse of ocean. F————-ck!!! And that earns it M15+ for “Infrequent coarse language.” True!

From March 6.

Lygon Street: Si Parla Italiano

In the ’50s and ’60s thousands of migrants, many of them Italians, poured onto our shores and many ended up in detention centres (there was no work).

Shannon Swan’s warm-hearted tribute starts there as many of the Italian men simply walked out to start a new life, while others rioted until they were put in charge of the kitchen! A lot ended up in Lygon St, Melbourne, still that city’s Little Italy.

Although its social history differs from what happened in Leichhardt, its story is strikingly similar. Many locals will find much to enjoy and Anthony LaPaglia’s narration is as richly humourous as it is informative. He doesn’t shy away from that other story either – the one NOT celebrated by our local Councils. That’s the one told by Underbelly.

PG on now.

★ Thanks to Dendy Cinemas we have 5 double inseason passes to give away.
For details on how to enter, see our Giveaways page.